It's been a while since we've blogged but we're back with exciting stuff from Social Media Week London 2013. We started the week with "What's Next?: Future Trends For Brand Communications" inside the stunning Royal Institute of Britain. It was generously hosted by Drew Benvie, the founder of social media agency, Battenhall.

We've been to our share of exciting social media events after living in San Francisco for 14 years, but this one left us in awe. The majesty of the Royal Institute lent to a very worthy event to attend. And not just because of the fresh pastries, cronuts and catered iced coffee. Thank you, Battenhall!

So let's get down to what we learned from the day's event.

Introduced by former FT Global Director of Communications, Emma Gilpin Jacobs, Drew started the presentation educating the crowd on his agency's research of the status of Twitter and the FTSE 100 (for us Americans, he pronounced it "footsy"). Here he examined the use of social media for investor relations and corporate communications by FTSE companies.

He focused a lot on Twitter and rightfully so. Here were some interesting insights:

88 of 100 FTSE companies tweet

28 of those companies have over 10,000 followers (Burberry has 2.1 million followers and is seen as one of the most successful social media brands)

Companies use social for customer service, community management and corporate relations

Twitter - I'm sure this was no surprise. But it was interesting to hear that it's starting to outrank YouTube and, soon, Google as the coolest place to be online. Generation C considers Facebook "so dead". This young demo is seen as the content creators of today and tomorrow, hence their moniker.

A Life Logged - We use social media to track our lives. In a few years, there will be 24 billion smart devices to support our self obsessions. Expect Twitter to be a large part of what you share.

Hacker Culture - We're familiar with these skills to be used for evil, like the "trollers" who want to steal data. But they're going to be used for good, like at this year's O2 Hackathon a few weeks ago.

Single Purpose Apps - Just like it sounds, apps that will do just one thing. But it will do that one thing like a HERO.

According to Drew Benvie, keep your eyes peeled for these Apps to stand out over the next few years: Twitter, Instagram, Keek, Vine, ask.fm, tumblr, and WhatsApp. We advise you get your brand's name in the game, if you haven't already. "Business is social".